Captains Log. Star Date 20.12.05 Hey Y'Aaaaall! Greetings from the U S of A! Its been a busy week or so for me so apologies if this postie gets long. I will try to condense info! So...I left Fiji on Dec 11 around 11pm and arrived in LA Dec 11 mid day. How strange... anyway! I stayed in West Hollywood for a while, checked out some flea markets and went to Universal Studios. It was good at Universal, very 'hollywood' but hey what did I expect! The Backdraft ride was the best one, they put you in a big room and set it on fire with explosions etc. Very warm and exciting inside! I started my TrekAmerica tour a couple of days afterwards. Out first stop was Hollywood Blvd where we saw the Chinese Mann theatre and the stars names on the sidewalk. Some I didnt recognise, the best people seemed to be in prime postion outside the theatre... We went to see the Hollywood sign, it looks really far away in the photo, but it felt closer at the time! It was originally called Hollywoodland, but the 'land' part fell down and was never replaced.... there you go! We headed to San Diego from LA and stayed at a nice campsite (yes camping, in tents, in winter...more on this later!) that had a hot pool and showers, luxury it was I tell you! We went to San Diego beach and saw the Pier. There are lots of homeless people who hang out down that way so we didnt really hang around for too long... We went to the zoo the following day, which was really good. The baby panda was really cute and the viewing under water places were cool. Check out the polar bear pic, there are two in it, one is half under the water : ) From San Diego we drove down to the Colorado river, past the sandunes on the way. They were really cool, but a bit of an effort to walk up! I figured we should of brought boogey boards with us to get back down he he : ) The campsite for the night was certainly less luxurious than the previous nights, we had a cold tap and a portaloo... fabulous! That night it froze, so was pretty darn cold sleeping in tents, we were up early and didnt hang around in the cold that morning! We hit the road again and headed for Nevada, and Betty and Rusty's cowboy camp. We went on a trail ride when we arrived, Rusty led us, he is a 96yr old cowboy! A bit deaf but apart from that he's still in fine shape! My horse was called Romy and was a bit kranky, not with me, but with all the other horses! He didnt like being near them! ha ha, he was cool tho and didnt try and buckaroo me so I was happy with that! : ) We had steaks cooked on the open fire for dinner, I've never seen steaks so huge before in my life! We were ang to by the fire, old skool cowboy songs, by Betty. That was nice : ) As it had frozen the night before, I decided to stay by the fire at the cowboy camp. We put a big massive log on there so it would hopefully burn all night and slept out under the stars. I had about 6 layers on! : ) The facilities were lacking again, a hole in the ground for the loo and one tap again... fantastic! We headed off from the Cowboy camp top stay with some....you guessed it! Indians! We went to Navajo and were fed Taco's when we arrived, then hauled up the side of a mountain on the back of a truck with all our luggage, in the pitch black! At one point our driver had to drive backwards, it was an experience!! We got to the top of the mountain and saw our Hogan, a bit like an igloo made with mud, it was really warm inside and I was happy about that! The facilities here, were none! Find a bush, any bush you like and go for a wee! Nice!! For those of you keeping count this is now 4 days of no showers!! : ) Roughing it to say the least! We learnt lots about the Indian culture and traditions and in the morning went on a 2hr jeep tour where we learnt about the rocks and their names and had some more traditional singing. It was really interesting and some of the things the guide said were really quite profound and made you think... We headed onwards to The Grand Canyon, staying in hotels here and in Vegas (our next stop) so its a treat to have hot water, showers etc etc etc! : ) In about half an hour I am going to catch the sunset at the Grand Canyon, we went for a walk around there this morning and found a cool echo point, it was fun to yell Yeeeeeeeehaaaaaaaw and hear it bounce around us! : ) As I said, Vegas is the next stop! I'm excited about getting there! And thats all I got to say about that! Over and out xxx